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Class Cleavage Roots and Left Electoral Mobilization in Western Europe Vincenzo Emanuele

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Class Cleavage Roots and Left Electoral Mobilization in Western Europe Vincenzo Emanuele Article Lost in Translation? Class Cleavage Roots and Left Electoral Mobilization in Western Europe Vincenzo Emanuele I investigate whether the strength of the class cleavage in Western Europe still “translates” into the electoral mobilization of the left. This research question is addressed through comparative longitudinal analysis in nineteen Western European countries after World War II. In particular, the impact of class cleavage is investigated by disentangling its socio-structural (working-class features) and organizational (corporate and partisan) components, thus accounting for its multidimensional nature. Data show that both components have a significant impact in Western Europe after 1945. However, while the socio-structural element is still nowadays a substantial predictor of left electoral mobilization, the impact of the organizational element has decreased over time and has become irrelevant in the last twenty-five years. Therefore, the class cleavage is not entirely lost in translation, but left electoral mobilization is no longer dependent upon the organizational features of trade unions and political parties that originally emerged to represent working-class interests. investigate whether and under what conditions the (i.e., the presence of a strong industrial working class, high I electoral mobilization of the Western European left is membership rates in trade unions and left-wing parties) predicted by the strength of the class cleavage. The and the electoral support for class bloc parties starting point of this investigation is represented by Bar- (i.e., communist, socialist, and social democratic parties). tolini’sinfluential work (2000), a macro-historical analysis However, Bartolini’s empirical results are drawn from the of thirteen Western European countries in the period “golden age” of class politics, where the working class was 1860–1980. Bartolini found a robust and enduring asso- strong and mainly industry-based, and class bloc parties ciation between different aspects of the class cleavage and trade unions were powerful mass organizations. More- over, Bartolini’s analysis does not properly take into account the interactive dimension between class cleavage A list of permanent links to Supplemental Materials provided aspects and other factors that may moderate the associ- by the authors precedes the References section. ation between class cleavage roots and left electoral mobil- ization. Amongst the many factors, the most important Data replication sets are available in Harvard Dataverse at: one is undoubtedly the evolution of this relationship https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/YRLGNR. across time. After several decades where the class cleavage was considered as the basis of politics and electoral com- petition and all else was instead “embellishment and Vincenzo Emanuele is Assistant Professor in Political ” Science at Luiss, Rome ([email protected]). He is Co-Chair detail (Pulzer 1967), since the 1980s a large body of of the Research Network on Political Parties, Party Systems literature working on micro-level data has emphasized the and Elections of the Council of Europe. His research, focusing decline of the class cleavage (Flanagan and Dalton 1984; mainly on elections and party system change, has appeared in Franklin, Mackie, and Valen 1992; Nieuwbeerta and Comparative Political Studies, West European Politics, Ultee 1999; Dalton 2002; Knutsen 2018). As a result, Party Politics, South European Society and Politics, and the validity of the link between left electoral mobilization Government and Opposition, among others. His mono- and its historical class cleavage roots has to be put into graph, Cleavages, Institutions, and Competition: Under- question in recent decades, characterized by working-class – shrinking and transformation, trade unions and left par- standing Vote Nationalisation in Western Europe (1965 ’ 2015), has been published by Rowman & Littlefield/ECPR ties organizational decline, and the alleged ideological Press. shift of class bloc parties away from economic left goals doi:10.1017/S1537592721000943 © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the American Political Science Association. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. 1 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.35.93, on 28 Sep 2021 at 03:22:57, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1537592721000943 Article | Lost in Translation? (Mair 2008; Best 2011; Dalton 2013; Jansen, Evans, and Class Cleavage and Left Electoral De Graaf 2013; Rennwald and Evans 2014; Evans and Mobilization: Theoretical Background Tilley 2012, 2017; Goldberg 2020). In other words, is the class cleavage still able to translate into the electoral The concept of cleavage lies in path-breaking studies by support for the left? Or, instead, is left parties’ support Lipset and Rokkan (1967) and Rokkan (1970). However, completely detached from its historical class cleavage notwithstanding their extensive use of the concept for the fl formulation of their genetic theory of party systems, Lipset roots? And which other intervening factors in uence this fi relationship? and Rokkan do not provide a clear de nition of cleavage, whose meaning has remained loose and has been used for I address these research questions through a compara- fl tive longitudinal analysis in nineteen Western European a long time as a synonym of division and con ict. As countries in the period 1946–2018. In particular, the Bartolini (2000, 16) puts it, the concept of cleavage is “either reduced down to that of social cleavage or raised up impact of class cleavage strength on the electoral mobil- ” ization of the class left is investigated through ecological to that of political cleavage. This is because the concept data and by disentangling the class cleavage into different refers to both social structure and political order. Thus scholars often use the expression “social cleavage” or components related to its socio-structural and organiza- “ ” tional elements, thus accounting for its multidimensional political cleavage depending on which aspect they want nature properly (Bartolini and Mair 2007). to emphasize. Empirical analyses show that the different components In this regard, an important systematization comes from of the class cleavage have a significant impact on the Bartolini and Mair (2007, 199). According to these electoral support for the class bloc in Western Europe in authors, the concept of cleavage incorporates three elem- – ents: 1) the empirical referent of the concept, that is, the the period 1946 2018. In particular, all else equal, a fl sizeable and industry-based working class and strong social group(s) arising from a con ict generated in the corporate and partisan organizations increase the electoral society, such as the working class (and, in reaction to it, the support for the class bloc. However, the temporal evolu- bourgeoisie) in the case of the class cleavage (empirical or tion of the association between class cleavage roots and left socio-structural element); 2) a set of values and beliefs electoral mobilization shows that, while the socio- providing the social group(s) with a sense of identity and structural element is still nowadays a substantial predictor self-consciousness (cultural or normative element); and 3) of the electoral support for the left, the impact of the an organizational structure (i.e., a political party) that organizational aspect has decreased over time and has coordinates and inspires the collective action of the social fi fi group and brings its interests into the political system become no longer signi cant in the last twenty- ve years. fi Therefore, the class cleavage is not entirely lost in trans- (organizational element). This widely accepted de nition lation, as working-class characteristics are still relevant for resulting in the concept of cleavage involves at the same predicting the electoral success of the left. However, the time socio-structural, ideological, cultural, organizational, latter is no longer dependent upon the organizational and institutional elements. Therefore, it follows that a social conflict per se is not sufficient to have a cleavage. To features of trade unions and political parties that originally fl emerged to represent working-class interests. And even the be translated into a cleavage, a social con ict needs to programmatic emphasis left-wing parties put on economic generate a sense of identity and common beliefs and, most left goals—which, in contrast to many scholarly claims, importantly, it needs to be politicized through the activity has not declined in recent years—is not sufficiently able to of an organization devoted to promoting its interests. At the same time, ideological or political issues without moderate the association between class cleavage roots and fi left electoral mobilization. clearly de ned social groups opposing each other cannot fi 1 The article is organized as follows: in the next section I be de ned as cleavages. critically review the literature on class cleavage and its Out of the four cleavages originally pointed out by electoral consequences in Western European societies; the Lipset and Rokkan, the class cleavage was the last
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